MAN Engine

Not exactly a spring chicken, but a very solid engine.
At 1200hp, it went down to history as their most powerful fully mechanical V12.
But the block as such was exactly the same that they used also in the LE404 (with electronic governor), capable of 1300hp.
And afterwards, they also threw in 4 valves heads and common rail, squeezing up to 1360hp out of it.

Now, personally I like mechanical engines in general, because any half decent shop can take care of them, and you are not at the mercy of histeric sensors and other gremlins.
Besides, if given a choice between the pinnacle development of an old technology vs. the first attempts at something radically new, with all potential teething troubles, I'd go for the former any day of the week, at least on a boat.

You do give up some advantages of electronically controlled engines, though.
Which are much cleaner on cold start for instance, as opposed to the engines you are asking about, which surely won't make your neighbours happy if they are having a drink nearby when you fire them up.
And they give you a much better/more detailed control on them through their displays, like real time fuel burn, EGT, and a lot of other useful parameters that you can only get with mechanical engines through the retrofitting of additional components.
In terms of fuel efficiency, the difference actually isn't as relevant as most manufacturers pretend it is, and it's sufficient to check out their own specs to call the bluff.
They are indeed cleaner anyway, and also slightly more efficient - if nothing else, because you get more ponies out of any given weight.
But predicting if they will be as durable as some mechanical engines already proved to be is still to be seen.

Anyhow, at the end of the day the choice is more driven by the age of the boat you are considering, than anything else.
And having in mind what engines were around back in the D2842LE406 days, you would have struggled to find anything much better in that power node, imho.

Oh, and welcome to the asylum!

Buddy with a pair of 800 hp. Man's rebuilt at 5500 hrs. Said their 1000 hr. service & parts are well above average expensive but that service mark is a key to longevity. I recently took a pass on a vessel with a pair with same hp. listing them having 5,000 hrs.

Inline 6 or V8?
Just curious.

Never asked but I will find out.

Reply I got from 3rd party; their believed to be V8's.

Omg, how does this perpetuate and why do people listen. 1000 hour service. Please, anyone, find me any MAN document with service at 1000 hours. It's at 400 hours, 800 hours, 1200 hours, 1600 hours, 2 years, 4 years.

As to their service costs, no more than their competitors. You need to follow the full schedule on all engines and it will be costly but save you in the long run. Properly maintained, we're finding MAN's to be dependable and likely the most reliable brand in their hp ranges today.

I know saying there's no 1000 hr service doesn't sound like a big thing, so the guy was off a bit, but it's a big thing because it gets thrown around and accompanied by more misinformation. The schedules are fully available online and just aren't that huge. I've heard people talk about the two year program as if it requires replacing a lot of things but it's just remove and clean, flush and reinstall. The only thing it says to replace is the valve caps on the expansion tank.

V8/800hp are precisely what I have on my boat.
Pretty similar to the V12 which are the subject of this thread, in every ways aside obviously from the number of cylinders and the total power.
In fact, it's no coincidence that the output of both is exactly 100hp for each pot.

Both are known to clock well above 5.5 K hours before needing a full overhaul, in many cases.
But time can take its toll on marine engines (also time spent standing still!), not just running hours.
So, it's rather common that the same engine clocks many more hours before needing a rebuild when installed on commercial boats, compared to pleasure boats...

Ref. service costs, I'm not sure if this trick can work in the US, but in Europe all non-marinized parts can be sourced also from their truck service network, at somewhat lower prices.
In my personal engine ownership experience (Cat, VP, Yanmar, Mercruiser, MAN), I wouldn't call MANs the most expensive engines to maintain.
I would rather award VPs as the winners of this particular context.

Perhaps MAN's pre-CRM engines may have had a 1000-hour service schedule?

-Chris

MAN did have a 1000 service schedule (or 2 years) of cleaning the heat exchangers, after coolers etc., The A1 service. Nobody did it every 2 years unless it was in extended warranty, they waited to 1000 hours regardless of years. So MAN changed the requirement to every 2 years a couple of years ago. This is what everyone refers to as the 1000 hour service.

Well, Ralph found "Change the Fuel Filter" listed at 1000 hours. Still haven't found anything material. Just people referring to the 2 year service as 1000 hours doesn't make it so and it's also not out of line price wise with others. Now if you postpone it to 1000 hours it may be because then you may find yourself replacing items instead of cleaning them.

Just too many rumors as to MAN maintenance being so expensive that are not true today. Yes, trouble if you ignore. Trouble if you ignore CAT recommendations too. Perhaps expensive for those stepping up from Deere or Perkins or Yanmar or even Cummins but not expensive compared to others in the same hp range.

We follow the manuals religiously and have no issues.

I never came across those pages.
Do you possibly have the reference code of the document (usually shown in the very last page, near "Printed in Germany")?

I struggle to match it with mine, in several ways.
For instance, it specifies a check of the injection nozzles ONLY every 5000 hours, which is unheard of.
In both my original German and Italian versions of pre-CRM maintenance plan, that is prescribed every two years.
That said, to my knowledge nobody ever did that, and neither MAN official shops ever suggested it.
What just about every MAN engineer I spoke with recommended, pragmatically, is to do that every 1000 hours.
Which might be one reason why some folks have in mind a somewhat expensive 1000 hours service.

Anyway, formally OB is correct: neither in CRM maintenance plan, nor in the pre-CRM version (at least those in my hands) there is anything specifically prescribed at 1000 hours.
M1, M2 and M3 checks are prescribed every 200 hours, and obviously 200 x 5 happens to be 1000.
But that aside, there's nothing specific - not even the fuel filter change mentioned in your document.
Which is unusual also in this respect, because nobody in his right mind would use a fuel filter for 1000 hours.
In fact, in both my CRM and pre-CRM versions, that's classified as M3, to be done every 200 hours.

I have MAN 2876 Le 401 inline 6 the pre CR rated @700 Hp .
I have had over the winter MAN engineers replacing the exhausts and various conversations over reliability as services as they are on 975 hrs .
I have even mentioned “ pulling the injectors “ because of the Internet folk lore on forums .
He has hooked up the relevant lap top ( mine have the MMDS ) on the sea trail after the new exhausts and gone deep into injector opening times , you can see them on a bar chart on the screen etc and he reports not needed leave it all alone .
That’s the beauty of the electrotwackery you are not blindingly pulling stuff on hrs only , perfectly functional stuff btw .
As I only do Max 80 hrs leisure use we left it at that .
He shook his head when I regurgitated the 1000 hrs pull + test the injector myth .

This is my 6/7 th season with MANs ( circa 2003 vintage ) and it only been lub , filters and coolant changes .
Put 500 + hrs on them .



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